Rugby League World Golden Boot Award

The Rugby League World Golden Boot Award is a rugby league award handed out annually for achievements in rugby league by Rugby League World magazine. The Golden Boot is given, usually in December after the conclusion of all the year's matches, to the player adjudged to be the best in the world, as determined by a ballot of international media representatives.^[1]

The Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) announced that the 2018 awards would be extended to include a Golden Boot for the best international female player.^[2] The inaugural award was won by Isabelle Kelly, the Australia and Sydney Roosters centre.^[3]

History

The award was founded in early 1985 by the British magazine Open Rugby. It was awarded to Wally Lewis for his performances throughout 1984. Lewis and the other pre-1990 winners were initially recognised for the years that they collected the award, not for the year of their performances. However, this was changed by Rugby League World magazine in 2010.

No award was made between 1990 and 1998 due to organisational difficulties. The award was resurrected in its original format in 1999 when Open Rugby changed ownership to become Rugby League World magazine, which retained ownership of the Golden Boot.

Andrew Johns collected the award in 1999 and again in 2001, becoming the first player to win it twice. Darren Lockyer repeated that feat, winning in 2003 and 2006 becoming the first player to win twice while playing in different positions.

It was presented during the RLIF Awards in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2007, the RLIF did not organise any awards. To fill the gap, Rugby League World magazine asked its Golden Boot panel to come up with winners in the existing categories used by the RLIF.

In 2011, Rugby League World magazine began to award retrospective Golden Boots to fill in "the missing years" starting with Garry Schofield who was adjudged to have won the 1990 Golden Boot. Schofield was due to receive the award at the time, until the sponsors, Adidas, withdrew their backing.

Winners - Men

Year	Nat	Player	Club(s)	Position
1984		Wally Lewis	Wynnum-Manly Seagulls Wakefield Trinity	Five-eighth/Stand-off
1985		Brett Kenny	Parramatta Eels Wigan	Five-eighth/Stand-off
1986		Garry Jack	Balmain Tigers	Fullback
19871		Hugh McGahan	Eastern Suburbs Roosters	Second-row
		Peter Sterling	Parramatta Eels	Halfback
1988		Ellery Hanley	Wigan Balmain Tigers	Five-eighth/Stand-off
1989		Mal Meninga	Canberra Raiders	Centre
19902		Garry Schofield	Leeds	Five-eighth/Stand-off
1991–98	No award given
1999		Andrew Johns	Newcastle Knights	Halfback/Scrum-half
2000		Brad Fittler	Sydney Roosters	Five-eighth/Stand-off
2001		Andrew Johns (2)	Newcastle Knights	Halfback/Scrum-half
2002		Stacey Jones	New Zealand Warriors	Halfback/Scrum-half
2003		Darren Lockyer	Brisbane Broncos	Fullback
2004		Andrew Farrell	Wigan Warriors	Loose forward
2005		Anthony Minichiello	Sydney Roosters	Fullback
2006		Darren Lockyer (2)	Brisbane Broncos	Five-eighth
2007		Cameron Smith	Melbourne Storm	Hooker
2008		Billy Slater	Melbourne Storm	Fullback
2009		Greg Inglis	Melbourne Storm	Centre
2010		Benji Marshall	Wests Tigers	Five-eighth
2011		Johnathan Thurston	North Queensland Cowboys	Halfback/Scrum-half
2012		Kevin Sinfield	Leeds Rhinos	Five-eighth
2013		Johnathan Thurston (2)	North Queensland Cowboys	Five-eighth
2014		Shaun Johnson	New Zealand Warriors	Halfback/Scrum-half
2015		Johnathan Thurston (3)	North Queensland Cowboys	Halfback/Scrum-half
2016		Cooper Cronk	Melbourne Storm	Halfback/Scrum-half
2017		Cameron Smith (2)	Melbourne Storm	Hooker
Rugby League International Federation Golden Boot (For International Performances)
2018		Tommy Makinson	St Helens	Wing
2019		Roger Tuivasa-Sheck	New Zealand Warriors	Fullback
2020–21	No award given
2022		Joseph Manu	Sydney Roosters	Fullback
2023		James Fisher-Harris	Penrith Panthers	Prop
Source:[4]

• ¹ The 1987 Golden Boot was shared by two winners
• ² Retrospective award made in 2011

By nationality

Wins	Nationality
19	Australia
7	New Zealand
5	England

By position

By club

NOTE: Clubs shared the award in 1984, 1985 and 1988

Wins	Club	Years
5	Melbourne Storm	2007, 2008, 2009, 2016, 2017
4	Sydney Roosters	1987, 2000, 2005, 2022
3	New Zealand Warriors	2002, 2014, 2019
	North Queensland Cowboys	2011, 2013, 2015
	Wigan Warriors	1985, 1988, 2004
2	Balmain Tigers	1986, 1988
	Brisbane Broncos	2003, 2006
	Leeds Rhinos	1990, 2012
	Newcastle Knights	1999, 2001
	Parramatta Eels	1985, 1987
1	Canberra Raiders	1989
	Penrith Panthers	2023
	St Helens	2018
	Wakefield Trinity	1984
	Wests Tigers	2010
	Wynnum Manly Seagulls	1984

Multiple winners

Winners - Women

Year	Nat	Player	Club(s)	Position
2018		Isabelle Kelly	Sydney Roosters	Centre
2019		Jessica Sergis	St. George Illawarra Dragons	Centre
2020–21	No award given
2022		Raecene McGregor	Sydney Roosters	Halfback
2023		Georgia Hale	Gold Coast Titans	Lock
Source:[5]

By nationality

Wins	Nationality
2	Australia
	New Zealand

By position

By club

Wins	Club	Years
2	Sydney Roosters	2018, 2022
1	Gold Coast Titans	2023
	St George Illawarra Dragons	2019

Winners - Wheelchair

Year	Nat	Player	Club(s)
2019		Jack Brown	Halifax
2020–21	No award given
2022		Sebastien Bechara	Catalans Dragons
2023		Jérémy Bourson	Catalans Dragons
Source:[6]

By nationality

Wins	Nationality
2	England
1	France

By club

Wins	Club	Years
2	Catalans Dragons	2022, 2023
1	Halifax Panthers	2019

See also

• RLIF Awards
• Rugby League World

References

External links

• Rugby League World Magazine

This page was last edited on 6 December 2023, at 01:45